DAR, PNP join forces to provide better lives for rebel returnees
To bring back the trust of the insurgents to the government, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Philippine National Police would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on April 30, 2021, in Camp BGen Vicente Lim, in Calamba City, Laguna, to prepare and capacitate the rebel returnees back to their normal lives.
The MoU, dubbed as SIKAP (Sitio Kapayapaan) Buhay Program, is a shared community support platform for the rebel returnees, where they would be capacitated with farming skills to assume their new roles as farmers and would be provided with lands to till and other farm inputs and machinery.
The DAR and PNP- Police Regional Office (PNP-PRO) 4A, would collaborate to develop the parcel of land in Kalayaan, Laguna, bought by the PNP as an initial staging or preparatory area for rebel returnees. The two agencies would then work together to put up a model farm or a demonstration farm on the project site.
Once capacitated, the trained rebel returnees shall be transferred in the three (3) settlement areas in Laguna, Quezon and Rizal and be allocated with a piece of land where they can apply their acquired farming skills and adopted farm technologies.
The lands that they would receive are idle government-owned lands provided by DAR through Administrative Order No.03, Series of 2020, while the rebel returnees who are willing to participate in the SiKAP-Buhay Project are screened by the PNP-PRO 4A.
DAR Secretary Brother John Castriciones said the MoU is in support to the government’s program for rebel returnees.
“We contribute in the peace-building efforts of the government by giving the rebel returnees livelihood and properties that could also contribute in securing the country’s food supply,” Brother John said.
The DAR chief said that through this project he is optimistic that many rebels would go back to the mainstream, and they would become productive individuals in better living conditions.